Viking Princess
by CaptainWorsfold
Summary: Viking raids off of the coast of Northumbria are common, only Hermione had not expected to be caught up in the midst of a differing world to the one she was used to. Thorfinn had heard stories of a Princess within one of the villages they were raiding, and after falling out of favour with his khan he thinks that kidnapping her may win favour back.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N A few quick things to explain. I will not issue content warnings with each chapter. So these are the warnings for** ** _all_** **chapters now:** **kidnapping, possessive behaviour, period typical violence and attitudes to marriage/women, dubcon to some extent, and smut**

 **The characterisation of Thorfinn in this is based off of the characterisation within** ** _Canimal's_** **work, along with within** ** _Kittenshift17's_** **, and** ** _Freya Ishtar's_** **to a certain extent. This is written with their express consent. Please go and check their work out, if you haven't already, because they are all amazing!**

 **This AU is based from my own knowledge and research of Viking and Anglo-Saxon Culture and not from the TV Show Vikings. Any context specific vocabulary about the period will be explained within either the end or beginning author's note depending on their importance to the chapter. Northumbria is referring to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which spread from parts of modern day southern Scotland to Midlands (Merica at this time).**

 **The story is set in the mid-to-late 8** **th** **century and before the establishment of wizarding schools and so will take some creative liberty with that.**

 **A language barrier will exist to some extent and this will be present through the use of** ** _italics_** **to denote Old Norse and regular form to denote Old English.**

* * *

{Hermione}

Darkness had only just fallen over the settlement at the edge of the Humber. The moon cast it's light through the pillar of smoke rising from the centre of the settlement, warming the faces of those standing there. The church crackled into existence in the firelight, glowing slightly as the wood sparked. The houses stood, framing the fire; as the girl scurried from the shadow of the furthest house from the fire.

She walked from the glow, as far as she could, until she had reached the edge of the river. Where she had so often walked to, simply to avoid her world and the drama of the settlement. She had found that standing at the riverside, in darkness, when everyone was asleep, was the only time she could really relax, let her guard down. She slipped her boots off, walking to the water's edge and hiking her skirt to place her feet into the river water. She would gasp at the cool temperature but enjoy the soothing nature of it, for it allowed all of the pain that blistered over her feet to escape and in that the pains that she felt elsewhere.

She bent down, turning the stones over with her hand before taking one from the pebble covered shore. Her thumb ran over the smooth surface of the pebble before she threw it out onto the river. It skipped out over the water's surface, once, twice, three-times. Plop. She repeated it again. Again. Again. On the fifth time she paused, holding the stone in her hand and slowly focusing on it.

This was the real reason that she would come out to the riverside. To do the one thing that they would hurt her for within the town, not matter what her parents would say, no matter who her parents were – or their position within the Witan. In fact, they would probably the first to harm her for it. It made her a witch.

She sighed, and flung the stone out so the it would skip against the surface once again. Expecting to hear the same 'one, two, three, plop' she had heard for the other four times that evening. Instead she heard the sound on the stone skimming off of the edge of a wooden hull. She froze, hearing a series of shouts obviously about the noise.

The silhouette of the boat was only just visible in the moonlight, but she could just about make out the wooden shape of the longboat. She frowned. They would eventually come ashore and here was the point at which they would easily be able to the settlement above. She had to move, but no matter how she would make it up the shoreline they would be able to hear her as she disrupted the way that the stones lay out. She felt her fear echo and buzz around her. She needed to move.

The shouts from the ship were getting louder and louder as she stood there, time passing. She needed to move. She _needed_ to move, to get home and into her bed. She began to scamper up the shoreline, moving as quickly as she could through the pebbles as they pulled back from her feet.

The darkness flooded around her, the shouts increased as a single scream pierced the air – coming from the direction of the settlement, though the brunette girl was not really sure from where. Her bare feet met the mud at the edge of the riverbank, where it led into the forest, and she moved to break into a run. Only she couldn't. She couldn't move.

It wasn't that she didn't want to move. It wasn't that she wasn't compelling her feet to move, to carry her through the trees and back to relative safety. It was that something had frozen her in place, and that she couldn't move at all.

" _Found you, Princess_." She heard muttered in the language of the Vikings, before a hand was waved across her face and she fell into the darkness. Two arms reached out and lifted her up, and she felt nothing more as she fell into the darkness.

* * *

[Thorfinn]

~1 Hour Earlier~

The longboat cut through the river towards the settlement. On every trip they had made over the sea before, they had seen this settlement. And on every trip he had been told another fact about the place by his men, each telling him of the King's brother living there, or the daughter who in one of the younger crew member's opinion was rather plain. But since the blonde boy mentioned her every time they passed the settlement, he doubted that.

His closest blood brother, Dolohov, had argued with him about perusing this settlement. But he had thought that the Jarl would prefer more of a hoard than less – and due to the size of the settlement he was sure that there would be plenty of treasure. Not that was all that he cared about with this settlement. A blow to the King would be enough for him to avoid angering his blood brothers that had settled along the Northumbrian border. He was falling out of favour with the jarl so anyway to avoid that was preferable. And he wanted to see this girl, this princess.

They had taken the settlement rather quickly at dusk, just after the sun had fallen. And then he searched for her. When he found no sign of her, and her parents having no clue where she was, he ordered the men to bring their ship downstream, so that they could have better access to the town when the girl eventually returned. One of the young boys had said that she had often gone down to the river when she was angered at her parents – he assumed she was there and would eventually return.

"You don't deserve her." One of the men, who he had assumed was her father, spat. He was stood apart from the others, clad in blue linen and had the more ornate sword compared to the men around him. Thorfinn let out a low chuckle, grinning at the man's discomfort.

"No?" He laughed, reaching for the hilt of his sword – shaped out to be a bear with slithers of gold decorated through its fur. "If she is as plain and wild as my men would have me believe, I think I do." He grinned when the man shied away, recognising the tone in his captor's voice.

"Please, she is my only daughter." He pleaded, and Thorfinn raised his eyebrow at him. Why would the man plead for his daughter? Unless he planned to marry her elsewhere?

"Then you should want me to take her," He grinned, leaning back against one of the wooden walls of the huts. "Because then I would never want to harm your family again." And he would leave the settlement mostly unburnt, not including the bits that he had already set on fire when they had arrived – mainly the church.

"We need her."

"Why would you need her?"

"She is a healer."

"Healer?" He raised an eyebrow, grinning as he motioned to the young woman three deep in who had been taken from the healer's hut. "You have a healer." He stepped around the group to the man. "Unless, it's something you do not want to say out loud, because your people would not want to hear it." His voice was slow, carving around every syllable carefully.

The man nodded slowly and Thorfinn broke out into a smile. He reached for the wooden hilt of his blade, feeling the core running through the magic within it. He stepped forward, placing a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to look at him. He felt the fire glint in his eyes. " _Find her_."

"No!" A scream filled the air as the man lashed out to grab at him, forced back moments later, his eyes wide in shock.

" _And burn this place_." Thorfinn turned on the spot, growling out his words, before he walked back towards where he had told his men to move the boat to; to the stone bay at the edge of the settlement.

As he approached the bay he saw her, attempting to scramble away from where she had seen his ship. He grinned looking over her form as she made her way up the bay. She was young, yes, and her hair was wild. But as he approached he noticed that she could not or had not seen him.

He grinned at the thought. If she had no idea he was there then this made everything easier. She was walking straight towards him. He grinned and as she moved just to the river bank, where the embankment met the forest edge, and sent a quick spell to freeze her there, his hand resting against the hilt of his blade. Before she could fall, he was at her side – lifting her body into his arms as he murmured " _Found you, Princess_." He cast another quick spell so that she passed out in his arms.

She was relatively light in his arms, stably asleep and unaware as she was lifted onto the ship. The air was warm from the embers of the fire, just visible from where he was stood on the deck. The boat was still mostly empty, the men still at the top of the ridge within the village as others rested at the edge of the embankment.

He looked towards the girl at the back of the longboat, where he had left her propped up against the wooden side. He sighed again. This didn't feel like it would be an easy journey back to his home.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N WOW I'm absolutely astounded by the response to the last chapter... Thank you all so much 3**

 **Now for this one there is a specific chapter warning for torture of the last third, just as a quick warning now.**

 **It involves Bellatrix so yeah... anyway enjoy!**

* * *

{Hermione}

The smell of the sea air was the first thing that abused her senses when she awoke. The harsh smell of salt and of damp wood forced her into a mild panic. The abrasions on her wrists made her acutely aware of what had happened. Her eyes opened wide as she tried to adjust to the daylight hanging over the sea air, it took her eyes a few moments to adjust to the light and to take in the sight before her.

The North Sea roared over the side of the longboat, the water crashing into the wooden side and causing the boat to rock. Not that it had changed the course of the ship or that it was even noticeable to the men, who carried on rowing, ploughing through the waves and west. Before her stood two men, the others sat either side of them down the length of the boat. The taller of the two men was stood ever so slightly closer to her had blonde long hair, which had, like most of the men's hair, become matted with the sea air and through helmet wear. He and the man beside him were the only two not wearing their helmets, instead holding them at their sides. The man beside him had much darker hair, and although it had been bleached by the summer sun it was still the colour of burnt wood.

She noted to herself that if her thoughts were already reaching this point she was surely going stir crazy already. She groaned and ran a bound hand down her face. The sun glared in her eyes, reflecting off of the waves and no matter where she looked to avoid the brightness, it didn't matter. It was still too bright.

" _Princess_." The blonde Viking whose voice she now recognised was crouched before her, his hands holding her wrists. "Please stay calm." He spoke in rather broken and heavily accented English, but English nonetheless. She smiled, he was trying in some way to keep her calm. It astounded her that he would even bother.

"Where am I?" She asked, pressing her back to the hard wood of the ship and curving into it. It allowed her to keep back from him somewhat, but also meant that she was avoiding the wind and eyes of the men on the ship. It was calming to be so far from it, that she could curl in on herself and just listen to the sea.

"Nearing my home." He said, frowning slightly at his own words. She wasn't sure if he had known what to really say to her to comfort her, or if he really was trying to comfort her. She highly doubted that he was in anyway trying to comfort her. He knelt down before her, examining her wrists carefully. The ropes were slowly removed and unknotted, the rope dropped to the floor of the ship.

She took the moment to automatically run from the man, attempting to reach the edge to escape the ship. When she was around half way down the boat, however, she was frozen in place once again as she had been before. Her feet frozen to the wood below her as the blonde man reached her, pulling her up and hoisting her over his shoulder. "Stop it, Princess." He sat her down at the end of the longboat once again.

" _You're going to need to keep an eye on her Finn_ ," The brown haired man laughed towards the blonde, and Hermione glared towards him. Her scowl was noticed by the blonde, who smirked at her. She sighed and tuned her gaze from the men to focus on the sights around her.

The water carved a specific path through the mountains which lay either side of them, the grey rock faces grimaced out over the water line, water falling in cascades down different areas of mountains. She slowly moved to stand to look out at the landscape around her, watching as the waves rocked against the edges of the ship, rebounding back towards the grass topped mountains.

Just in the distance she could make out a village at one of the edges of the mountain side. A boy saw the ship and ran from the edge of the village towards one of the larger huts. The ship slowly made its way towards the village, slowing towards a cove where a series of other long boats waited, empty.

"Welcome, Princess." The blonde grinned before grabbing her wrists together once more, his hand resting against the grip as the rope tied itself around her wrists. " _Not risking you running away_." He frowned at her for a moment before hoisting her over his shoulder once again. She spent her time focusing on trying to swing from his shoulder, something the man found funny for a few moments before pulling on the rope to tighten its grip on her wrists.

Due to how she was being held, she was highly aware of the strength the man had. It terrified her. She could see the patterns painted onto his skin on the arm holding her to his shoulder. She was becoming persistently aware of the weaponry attached to his back; the axe with the pommel her face was pressing against if she leant too close to him, the wooden shield that she pressed against her stomach. It made her very conscious as she knew he didn't need any of this, he had an ability to channel his magic and stop her even before she could get away from him.

He suddenly dropped her to her feet outside a larger building than the others surrounding them, she was stuck facing him and chose to glare at him to avoid turning around or facing the other people around her. Though as she was glaring up at him she could still see people crowding to look at them and then men behind the blonde, carrying crates of gold from their haul. She frowned. She recognised some of the items. Her gaze went straight back to the blonde and her glare worsened.

" _Thorfinn, what_ _have_ _you brought me_." A male voice drawled from behind her as she froze up, turning her head slowly to see the man standing there. He was thinner than the blond, and had long black hair that was pulled back tight, and he was older than the others, and wore more fur than the men on the ship had.

" _Niece of the King of Northumbria, Sir_." The blond, Thorfinn, said. And she was shocked at the words that she could recognise. He knew who she was? So this wasn't a random encounter? She glared up at him once again. " _And she is a witch_."

* * *

[Thorfinn]

He hoped that she wouldn't question or really recognise what he was saying. But he was sure she could. The little spitfire hellion had been glaring at him since he had placed her down and whilst it was quite funny to start with, it was irritating him somewhat; with his Jarl there, as well, it was becoming increasingly obvious of the dragoness' temper. " _The kin of Northumbria is_ _some_ _gift, Thorfinn_." The man grinned over the girl's head, calming Rowle's nerves somewhat.

Riddle was pleased. That was something that gave Thorfinn some hope about the situation. " _And a hoard as well_." Riddle preened at the sight. " _Well you have been busy_."

Thorfinn almost scoffed at his Jarl's words. He was used to some level of condescension and recently this was becoming more and more common place for him and his men; who were receiving little reward for their work as Riddle preferred to continue to treat the Lestranges and Blacks – still. " _We will speak inside, Thorfinn_." Riddle smiled at him and motioned towards the hall, before pausing once more. " _Lestrange, have your wife see to the girl_."

Finn froze as the girl seemed blissfully unaware, even happy at the fact that she would be away from him. He couldn't say anything to counter what his chief had said but it still worried him immensely of what the woman would do with no one to stop her, especially because Riddle would give her free reign of her own actions. Finn pulled the girl to the side for a moment before following his leader into the building. " _Princess_ , do not give her any reason to harm you." Her face dropped as she registered the concern on his face.

"What would she do?" The girl asked in a hushed whisper, her eyes widening before the glare returned momentarily. "Could she do worse than you?"

He sighed for a moment, his eyes closing for a few seconds before reopening to look at her squarely in the eyes. He wished that she would not be so temperamental and argumentative about this already. "A lot worse than me."

Bella Lestrange now stood in the doorway of the hall, grinning wildly at Thorfinn before her gaze turned to the girl – her grin widening and her eyes lighting up at the prospect. He felt his stomach drop seeing her there. This was going to be very wrong, and he knew it. And he knew he couldn't stop it. " _Tonin, watch over her_." He directed before walking through the doorway and past Lestrange's wife. Her smile discouraged him.

" _What do you want from the hoard_?" Thorfinn was weary of the question, it was too loaded a question for it not to be noticed by him. He knew he had to tread carefully through the ideas of it.

" _What you are prepared to give me, chief_."

" _The girl_?"

He was more than taken aback by the sheer idea of that. " _She is a prize_." Thorfinn could feel his voice becoming almost wistful at the thought of her, he was agreeing with his chief but without saying it explicitly. He couldn't. If he did that then she would probably end up being given to someone else, probably Lestrange or maybe the Malfoys.

" _A powerful one_ ," Riddle agreed, smiling at the blonde. " _Would you want her_?" It was a loaded question at the end of the day. Would he want her? He took her for his own personal gain, but if he could gain more from it, would it be so bad to advance his lot further?

Thorfinn was unsure how to react. He knew he would have to be truthful in some element. " _If you are prepared for me to have her_." He admitted and glanced towards the doorway.

" _Thorfinn, you are my kin_ ," Riddle placed his hand on Thorfinn's shoulder, smiling as he spoke. " _She is yours as long as you tell me of how you came across her_." Riddle led him towards one of the long tables, encouraging him to sit down opposite him. With the wood dividing them, Thorfinn felt a slight more comfortable. He wasn't quite as conscious about what he was about to say,

" _We were coming back from the villages out at in Northumbria_." Thorfinn recounted, remembering how the ship had originally passed by the village without a sound. Without a second thought. " _One of the boys mentioned that they had seen a girl doing magic when we were passing there the first time_." He remembered the Malfoy boy talking about the 'wild girl' at the top of the rocks. " _I recognised the village as one where the king of Northumbria used to reside, so I thought that we should check it out_." That and the idea of finding more of a hoard. Only she had become more valuable than most of that hoard. " _Her father was protesting my taking of her_."

" _So what did you do?"_ Riddle asked, smiling as he watched the man's eyes glaze over slightly.

" _I burned down the village._ " Thorfinn replied before blinking heavily his eyes refocusing on the man before him before he smiled slightly. " _Does that explain everything, chief?"_

* * *

{Hermione}

The dark haired man followed behind her all of the time she was with the woman. The woman grinning wildly at her whenever she had the chance to. Hermione kept glancing back to the man, 'Tonin' was what the blonde had called him. He seemed strangely protective of her, spending his time concentrating on her and glancing wearily at the woman.

" _Antonin, you cannot stay with us whilst I bathe her_." The woman, Bella, turned to the man. He raised an eyebrow towards her and frowned.

" _I will wait out here. If you try anything it's not Thorfinn or I you will be dealing with_." He growled and placed his hand on the girl's shoulder. She shied away slightly before he released her and allowed her to follow the woman towards the Fjord.

Hermione looked at the woman carefully, trying to keep a constant eye on her as they moved through the tree line so they were just out of sight of the man who had been tasked to watch them. "Off." The woman managed to say in English, motioning towards the dirtied dress that Hermione was wearing and glaring as she did so. Hermione was slow to follow through, fearful of the colder are pressing against her skin if she followed her command – but she did anyway, attempting to stay quiet and follow what the blonde Viking had said.

When she'd dropped her clothing she moved towards the water and stepped into the water. Allowing herself to become immersed in the cooler water. It did not feel any colder than the Humber did on a similar day. She swam close to the shore, treading the water so that she allowed the tide to brush over her body. After a while she swam to the edge and moved to push herself out of the water, only to find herself being pulled back by the water itself.

She panicked, attempting to kick herself out of the water only to have herself pulled deeper and deeper into it. Her lungs began to burn at the feeling, her head becoming fuzzy with the feeling. Everything was fading.

Her throat burned. Her eyes faded.

She was suddenly pulled from the water. And her screams could not echo through the trees. Nothing was coming out of her open mouth. Her eyes became wide as she saw the woman looming over her, a blade in her hand.

Hermione tried to squirm away, only to found herself frozen in place. The woman then took her arm and carved a series of runes into it. Hermione could only feel the blinding pain of it all, the damage to herself meant nothing as she was becoming numb it all. Tears welled in her eyes and she continued to scream out, to yell out for the man who was unable to see them both.

When she was done, the woman cackled and skipped off. A few moments passed as Hermione still lay there, watching her blood seep onto the grass from the word carved into her arm. She curled into it, letting the tears fall from her face.

" _Princess_." She could hear the man calling for her from the tree line. She wanted to be left there, to curl in on herself. Tears fell freely down her cheeks as her sobs became audible. " _Oh fuck_." She heard the voice from nearby before two arms lifted her cold, limp body into the arms of the dark-haired Viking.

"What does it say?" She asked first in shaken English. The man seemed too distracted to understand her, trying to dress her in her clothes from before and examining the wound on her arm. " _What does it say_?" She repeated, in a broken tone of the Vikings.

He paused. Looking over her face to be sure that she had truly spoken to him in Norse, before he registered what she had asked. He gulped. " _Thrall_." He lifted her fully into his arms before taking her back to the main hall.

" _Rest, Princess_." The man said as another dark haired man approached. This one had long hair and rather pointed features. He didn't say anything to her, only focusing on the wound on her arm. He poured a clear liquid over it, causing it to sting for a moment but stopping the bleeding.

She sighed. The pain taking over once more before her body relaxed and she allowed her head to rest against the man's chest. In her mind she began planning how she would seek her revenge on each of them for what that woman had done.


End file.
